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The Savage Game Studios team is working on an unannounced mobile live service action game that Sony has its eyes on.
Sony is acquiring Savage Game Studios and adding it to a newly created PlayStation Studios Mobile Division to expand beyond consoles.
Savage Game Studios was founded in 2020 by gaming veterans Michail Katkoff, Nadjim Adjir and Michael McManus, who have previously worked at well-known developers including Rovio, Zynga and Wargaming.
According to its website, Savage makes “action games with epic stories to foster lasting connections with players around the world”.
Although the European game development start-up has no titles made public yet, Sony said the team is working on an unannounced mobile live service action game.
Sony is acquiring the studio as part of plans to “expand and diversify” its offering beyond console and bring “incredible new games to more people than ever before”, according to Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios.
“Our move into mobile, like our expansion into PC and live service games, strengthens our capabilities and our community, and complements PlayStation Studios’ purpose to make the best games that we can.”
With offices in Helsinki and Berlin, Savage was founded with the idea that being a small and independent studio could be a chance to experiment and take risks. However, it defended its decision to be acquired by Sony, one of the world’s largest video game makers.
“We made this deal because we believe that PlayStation Studios’ leadership respects our vision for how we can best operate and succeed, and because they too are not afraid to take chances,” Savage CEO Katkoff said.
“All of that, plus the ability to potentially tap into PlayStation’s amazing catalogue of IP and the fact that we will benefit from the kind of support that only they can provide.”
Savage Game Studios is joining the newly created PlayStation Studios Mobile Division. Sony said this division will operate independently from its console development and “focus on innovative, on-the-go experiences based on new and existing PlayStation IP”.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. It comes just months after Sony acquired Halo and Destiny creator Bungie for $3.6bn.
This was first revealed less than two weeks after Microsoft announced the biggest gaming acquisition in history, with plans to snap up Activision Blizzard in a deal worth nearly $70bn that would make it the world’s third-largest video game company.
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